A flexible printed circuit board is one of the most complicated and multi-functional products in printed circuit boards (PCBs). The flexible printed circuit board is widely applied in various electronic products, such as notebook computers, mobile phones, liquid crystal displays (LCDs), hard discs, printers, cameras, and automobiles, etc. because it has the characteristics of smaller size, less weight, flexibility, lower voltage and lower power consumption, and it is suitable for three-dimensional wiring distribution according to the size and shape of the inner space of the electronic product. For example, the flexible printed circuit board can directly adhere onto the glass substrate of the liquid crystal display through the COG mounting process to be electrically connected with the pixel electrodes and driving circuits.
In the current LCD related processes, the FPC suppliers usually transport and supply the flexible printed circuit boards using piece-type packaging. The suppliers generally first define tens of FPC patterns in a flexible plate and then cut out FPCs one piece by one piece through the cutting procedure. FIG. 1 shows a conventional flexible plate 12 having FPC patterns 10 before cut. As shown in FIG. 1, the FPC patterns 10 on the flexible plate 12 are arranged in pairs. Two pieces of adjacent FPCs are in one unit and the neighboring sides of these two pieces of FPCs are partially connected.
Referring to FIG. 2, which is a top view of a tray 14 carrying the FPCs in pairs, the flexible plate 12 is cut and the FPCs are cut down one pair by one pair. Afterwards, the suppliers deposit these FPCs 10 in pairs on the tray 14 so as to perform a transporting process. There are tens of matrixes of recesses on the top surface of the tray 14 for receiving these FPCs 10 in pairs. As shown in FIG. 2, the tray 14 has about 50 bar-like recesses in each of which two pieces of partially connected FPCs 10 are deposited.
Hence, the suppliers can transport the FPCs 10 by piece-type packaging to the LCD manufacturers through the carrying of the trays 14, and it is convenient for the related machinery to take the FPCs 10 directly from the tray 14. In a typical supplying mode, as shown in FIG. 3, about twenty trays 14 are stacked in a feeding division of a processing machine. Thereafter, referring to FIG. 4, a sucking device 16 of the processing machine can suck the FPCs 10 in pairs out of the tray 14, put them on a transporting arm 18 and precisely identify their locations.
Subsequently, the FPCs 10 in pairs are transported to the processing machine by the transporting arm 18. Then, the FPCs 10 are sucked up by a pre-press head 20 and sent into a process chamber. After the marks for locating the FPCs 10 are precisely identified, the FPCs 10 are adhesively pressed onto the surface of a glass substrate 22. As shown in FIG. 4, a color filter 24 and a large scale integration (LSI) chip 26 have been fabricated on the surface of the glass substrate 22 in advance.
However, there are many disadvantages in such piece-type FPCs packaging/supplying. First, after the suppliers cut out the FPCs 10 one pair by one pair using a puncher, it spends quite a lot of time and labor to regularly arrange these FPCs 10 one by one in the tray 14. Besides, when the tray 14 is pressed or knocked by an external force during transportation, it often leads the FPCs 10 in the tray 14 to scatter and make displacement, as shown in FIG. 5. That might result in crumples, curves and deformation of the FPCs. Once this situation occurs, it frequently requires to rearrange and inspect these FPCs 10.
Furthermore, as shown in FIG. 3, the FPCs 10 are transported into the feeding division of the processing machine with the tray 14. However, the stack of the trays 14 has up to twenty three trays and the amounts of the FPCs supplied are only about 1150 pieces. For the current processing machine, it is necessary to re-supply after about two hours. Therefore, it brings burdens to on-line operators and greatly reduces the throughput of the entire process.